Resolution on Antisemitism and the Jewish Situation

The Provisional Committee of the World Council of Churches records its deep sense of horror at the unprecedented tragedy which has befallen the Jewish people in consequence of the Nazi attempt to exterminate European Jewry, and its heartfelt sympathy with the survivors of this tragedy and their fellow-Jews throughout the world.

The Committee recognizes with thankfulness the faithful witness of many Christians, who, at great peril to themselves, made their protest against antisemitism and gave shelter to its victims. It also acknowledges with penitence the failure of the Churches to overcome, in the spirit of Christ, those factors in human relationships which have created and now contribute to this evil which threatens both Jewish and Christian communities.

The Committee therefore urgently calls upon Christians throughout the world to combat this evil by all the means within their power and especially in the following ways:

by testifying against the principles and practices of antisemitism as a denial of the spirit and teaching of our Lord;

by ministering wherever possible to the needs of those who still suffer the consequences of antisemitic discrimination or persecution;

by giving their support to efforts to find acceptable homes to Jews who have been displaced or who can no longer remain where they are;

by co-operating with Jews in reciprocal attempts to remove causes of friction in personal and community relationships;

by promoting understanding and goodwill between Christians and Jews so that they may bear a common witness to the obligations of neighbourliness to all men, and to the claims of righteousness, truth and love as the foundations of a well-ordered human society.